Greyhound says it may vacate historic terminal for another Cleveland location (gallery)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Greyhound says it is working with the city of Cleveland to move its downtown operations, which would leave the bus company's historic Art Deco terminal in the bustling neighborhood of Playhouse Square open for a new use.

"Developers are working with the city and, in turn, we are working with the city to find another location," Greyhound spokeswoman Lanesha Gipson said Wednesday.

"We are in the preliminary stages of the process so we don't have a specific date or relocation site selected as yet."

A city representative was not available to speak to the issue this week. The Plain Dealer first sought the city's input on Tuesday.

There's increasing pressure to develop the area around the Greyhound property. Hofbrauhaus Cleveland, which opened last month on Chester Avenue between the theaters of Playhouse Square and the Greyhound station, has hopes of juicing up the area's entertainment and retail traffic.

The station is flanked by housing clusters and Cleveland's theater district.

Playhouse Square leaders are thought to be closely involved with plans to repurpose the Greyhound station, as part of efforts to spur retail to serve the existing Playhouse Square residential population. Chief Executive Art Falco and Tom Einhouse, vice president of real estate development, declined comment.

If Greyhound's operations are relocated, it could do more than open its iconic 1948 terminal to a likely commercial reuse.

It also could be a step towards another, perhaps more ambitious goal held by local transportation planners - developing a transit hub in downtown Cleveland that would be an intermodal center for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Greyhound, Amtrak and perhaps other services, such as Megabus, Akron Metro RTA, Stark Area RTA, Portage Area RTA, taxis and rental cars.

That would be a very costly project for the agency that would likely take the lead on it, the Greater Cleveland RTA. Nonetheless, there are signs of renewed exploration of the idea.

RTA General Manager Joe Calabrese confirmed this week that he discussed a potential Greyhound move out of its station when "architectural and design people" from Greyhound visited Cleveland in late August, at the time of the ribbon-cutting for the rebuilt Cedar-University rapid station.

Calabrese described his role as that of an intermediary between Greyhound and developers interested in the bus station.

"The building that they have right now seems to be much bigger than they actually need," Calabrese said of Greyhound. "They have some interest in relocating and modernizing."

"They said given the right opportunity, the right location, the right price, they might move."

In addressing possible changes afoot for Greyhound, Calabrese mentioned the multimodal center that opened when he headed up the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority in Syracuse, which raised ridership on all modes by an average of about 20 percent.

In Cleveland, talk of an intermodal facility near Lake Erie has percolated since the 1990s. At All Aboard Ohio, a big proponent of a train-bus hub, Executive Director Ken Prendergast sees encouraging signs.

Prendergast said Calabrese told him that he'd contacted Amtrak in recent weeks to discuss the idea of a transportation center by Amtrak's lakefront station.

At the same time, Amtrak must improve its worn terminal to comply with federal laws on handicapped accessibility. With a station parking lot in poor condition and a narrow track-side platform, Amtrak could be readying to invest in its site.

Meanwhile, things are in motion near the Greyhound station, with the city of Cleveland recently putting out a request for proposals to develop the property just west of the station.

"The problem is everyone tends to do things in their silos," Prendergast said. "That's not how a multimodal station comes to be."

If Greyhound is in play, where it lands "can either encourage the intermodal hub or postpone it," Prendergast said. All Aboard Ohio thinks the logical spot would be on the lakefront near Amtrak, to allow for eventual construction of a bus-train center.

Grace Gallucci, executive director of the regional planning agency that directs tens of millions in federal transportation funding in Greater Cleveland, said today: "From the transportation perspective, the more multimodal we can be, the stronger our transportation network could be."

Gipson, the Greyhound spokeswoman, said that when considering new locations, Greyhound wants terminals that are "conveniently located, have easy access to major interstates and are beneficial to everyone - our customers, the company and the community."

Cleveland is one of the Dallas-based company's major markets in terms of ridership, Gipson said. Greyhound doesn't release ridership numbers for competitive reasons, but Gipson noted there are 28 inbound and 29 outbound schedules at the Cleveland station.